positivechange

"I'll just scroll Reddit for a bit, and then I'll go do the thing."

That is my mantra. Replace "Reddit" and "the thing" with different variables and that's my life story.

According to APS Fellow Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University nearly 20 percent of the population may be "chronic procrastinators," like me.

Ferrari has an interesting take on procrastination that certainly hasn't always been prevalent.

“It really has nothing to do with time-management,” he says. “As I tell people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up.”

So, if my brain is just wired that way, what can I do? I've begun trying to think about how I see my daily tasks differently. I think the "I'll do this fun thing, then that important thing later" attitude is inaccurate. That's what needs to be changed. I'm not necessarily lazy, I'm just thinking about my task inaccurately. I'm lying to myself about what's happening. Below are the reasons I think that's the case.

1. I don't have fun while I'm procrastinating. I feel copious amounts of guilt the entire time. I feel anxious. I spend the time lying to myself about my reasoning for this behavior. "I had to do this, I had a headache."

2. So long as I'm okay with saying "I'll do that important thing later," that's just what I'm going to say when my new designated time to do said important thing arises. If I'll say it at 9:00, I'll say it again at 11:00.

3. In some cases where I examine why I want to put off a task, it's not that it will be difficult, or very unfulfilling. I want to put it off because I associate it with possible failure. I think I'm going to do very poorly and/or fail. I'm putting off the emotional stress of failing, not the productive task.

While #3 doesn't apply to things like house work, I can see how a version of it would. I'm not afraid I'll fail at doing the dishes. I do, however, feel like cleaning for 1 hr would leave me tired with a still dirty house. In this way, I don't feel like getting up to do the thing is going to result in a complete success, so I'm putting it off to avoid that failure.

If I've been lying the whole time, what should I replace it with?

When I decide on a goal, I set forth a schedule to complete the goal. Now I have a commitment. Example - Every night at 8pm I'm going to meditate

Now, at 8pm, I have a choice to make. I can actively work toward my goal, or away from it. Those are the only possible choices. No matter the reason, good excuse or terrible, if I don't follow through with my commitment, I'm now 1 unit of measure behind.

It is certainly possible to catch up later. However, this mindset of always actively working for or against what I've decided I want means that until I catch up, I'm behind. For my work related goals, I'll never really catch up. I can't get those hours back. If I'm not working for my goal, I'm actively putting myself behind.

TL;DR There is no pause button on my life. I can't put it down and come back to it later, preventing any damage. The clock is always ticking, and each minute spent procrastinating isn't a minute doing nothing, it's a minute doing harm.

Submitted February 15, 2018 at 10:57AM by YouBoughtaUsedLion http://ift.tt/2BxQcHN